


Burning Due Notices

by reveneration



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-26
Updated: 2013-09-26
Packaged: 2017-12-27 16:15:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/981000
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reveneration/pseuds/reveneration
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Thomas tries to heal what little remains between him and Rio. It's a nice idea in theory, but things don't always go as planned - be it for better or for worse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Burning Due Notices

> _I hate this love song_   
> _I’ll never sing it again_   
> _So I can stop thinking of you  
>  so I can finally forget [you](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKZEmLvYVF0)_

Thomas can repeat the floor tile patterns on the floor from memory by the end of the week. It’s not that he wants to be there (it’s absurd, it’s not his fault this time) but he feels a deep sense of obligation to stay at Rio’s side until she’s strong again. He’d failed to be there in the wake of the fire… was it so far a stretch to call this a surrogate situation for all the nights of guilt spent staring at the hospital out his bedroom window wondering just what she was feeling. Had the burns pained her as much as they him? When she looked in the mirror did she see winding patterns of ugly, burned flesh that carved across her body and marked all her sins and -

No. Those sins were his own.

Thomas pinches the bridge of his nose and soon after slides his fingers over his cheeks to cover his mouth and shut his eyes against the glare of the hospital lights. He yawns into his cupped palm and crosses his legs, fumbling for his book with his free hand.

In an hour and a half the nurses will tell him visiting hours are over. There’s still time to kill, and it’s not as if Rio provides any conversation right now.

_Comas are a real bitch, aren’t they?_

Every few minutes he finds himself glancing up at the monitor to watch her heart rate. He knows that once he leaves for the night is when Ryoga shows up, because there term ‘visiting hours’ doesn’t apply to him. And even if it did Thomas is certain the nurses would let him in… let him walk by with that broken expression of a boy (not a man - a boy) who’s lost everything and has nothing left to gain.  
Ryoga probably knows he visits. If he does, he never says a word.

…That makes this all the more uncomfortable.  
Had he lost himself so much that - No, Thomas won’t indulge the notion that he’s stopped caring. That would mean that Ryoga had given up and there was no way Rio would forgive that.

Whatever the reason is for his silence, Thomas is glad. He couldn’t explain this even if he tried.

Thomas turns the page and scans it. How many times has he read  _Dante’s Inferno_  at this point (too many) and since when had he dog-eared the pages so much (two years ago)? Pity how very little had been lost over the years since he’d come out of foster care.  
Still… these pages were so old now… It had been his father’s book from his own teen years. Had these dog-ears come from Byron?

“Are you going to sit there all day?”

Thomas looks up from his book and closes it with a sharp snap. “Depends how much longer you’re going to pretend to be asleep.” Thomas pinches the bridge of his nose and sighs to himself. “How long?”

"An hour. Maybe. I came to last night."

The conversation seems so casual and yet he air is heavy with tension. They don’t look at each other. They don’t make any other statement. Thomas wants to break the silence but he’s not sure how - he could offer his well-wishes and condolences but it wouldn’t seem right. ‘Hey, by the way, sorry about that whole fire thing it’s all water under the beige!’

Thomas scans her neck against the pillows for the enth time as if he’ll find some indication that she’s scarred. Broken. Just like he is.  
And yet he sees nothing.

“If you’re here to apologize I don’t want to hear it.”  
Rio finally turns her head in his direction, bangs splayed out over the pillow and framing the gentle curve of her face. She’s beautiful, Thomas doesn’t deny that, and for all her beauty it can’t shadow his own rotting insides.  
“You had a lot of chances. I don’t know why you’d bother to come now.”

“I’m not here to apologize.” Thomas chuckles to himself and leans forward on his elbows. “I’m surprised you’re not up kicking my ass half-way to Sunday.”

“It’s Friday already and I’m too tired. I’ve spent so much time in a hospital it almost feels normal. “ Rio shuts her eyes and then shakes her head. “I assume from that look you keep giving me you already know.”

“Word gets around.”  
Thomas shrugs and takes a glance at the monitor again. “Do you want to talk about the fire?”

“I don’t want to talk about it now.”

“Maybe later, then.”

Silence falls between them and Thomas tries to fill the void with something, and yet nothing comes to him. The monitor pings from time to time. Her hands shift on the bed sheets. It’s so goddamn awkward and yet what can he say? He shuffles his feet and plays with his book, watching the clock as it ticks toward the last few minutes of his visiting time. He doesn’t say anything when the nurse comes in to remind him it’s time to leave, only nodding and packing up while he prepares to leave.

“Come back tomorrow. They’re going to let me go outside.” She opens and closes her mouth for a moment. “Do you… have a name?”

“…Thomas.”

“Tomorrow, then. Thomas.”

He nods and makes a note to bring an extra sweater just in case.

—

On Friday they sit next to each other and talk about her progress and how Ryoga is coping with everything. Sometimes they talk about what’s happening in their lives with siblings and how school or work is. Thomas tells her that he wants to go back to school and Rio mentions that she’s making friends.  
It’s the first time Thomas catches himself smiling around her.

Saturday is rainy and they stay inside. Rio hauls out her school work and groans about how much she’s missed and how Ryoga hasn’t been keeping up so he’s no help.  
Thomas rolls up his sleeves and tells her not to laugh when he puts on his reading glasses and tells her he’ll help as best he can.  
She scolds him when he uses his phone to check some answers but relents when he tells her it’s not cheating, just confirming (she doesn’t believe a word of it but let’s him continue anyway). He brings back coffee and roasted chicken sandwiches for dinner and passes Ryoga on the way out of the hospital.

They don’t speak, only nod to one another and act as none of this is happening. There’s not much to say anymore… But they’ll get there.

Sunday and Monday roll around and Thomas only has time to drop by for lunch and ask her how she’s feeling. She tells him that she’ll be able to go home in a few days and he’s welcome to visit. After she extends the invitation she looks out the window and mutters that she still hasn’t forgiven him and Royga will be there so he’ll need to watch his back.  
Thomas rolls his eyes and tells her Ryoga’s just going to be saucy about it.  
Rio throws a math textbook at him and he leaves laughing with her number tucked away in his pocket.

Tuesday, Thomas can’t make it but he texts her and she tells him she’s getting out on Saturday and he can pick her up if he wants to because Ryoga will be at school. As an afterthought, it seems, she asks if he’d like to do lunch that day, but makes the point that it’s just social.

_‘You still owe me, Thomas.’_  
‘so ur asking me out?’  
‘No! It’s not like that!’  
‘ok see you later.’

Wednesday is when Thomas decides to pick up a gift for Rio, getting her a red scarf after two hours of looking around the strip with Chris in tow muttering about how he needed to get back to Kaito to start making travel plans. Despite the bickering he gets what he needs and decides to clean his apartment that night in case Rio wants to come over.  
 _…Why would she, you’re just… helping her. Paying dues._

Thursday and Friday are spent between getting lecturing texts from Ryoga and having Rio’s bag dropped off at his place. Ryoga leaves him strict instructions on Friday night that he’s to drop Rio off and that’s it.

“She doesn’t need you. I don’t like you around her.”

“She can make her own choices.”

They stand facing each other, Ryoga holding Rio’s backpack and Thomas staring back holding two coffees and a paper bag in his teeth that holds rice marshmallow squares. There’s something strange about the two of them like this, dressed down to weekend clothes and arguing about a girl - a girl who would probably kick their asses if they knew they were fighting about her this way.

“Do your fucking job then leave her alone.”

“I’ll do what she wants.”

When Thomas picks Rio up on Saturday they stop for lunch first and on a whim she asks to go home with him. The end up sitting in the back and Thomas shows her his sketchbook, letting her thumb through it. She shows excitement at his work and asks him if he can draw her.  
Thomas obliges, and between showing her his work and enjoying a late dinner, it stops feeling like an obligation and more like… friendship.   
Perhaps… in retrospect, that was when the spark started. The budding beginnings of a small, if uneasy  _friendship_.

—

“Do you have to smoke?”

“It’s my fuckin’ balcony,” mutters Thomas, tapping his ashes into the tray and glancing over at his new guest. “Don’t pout I hate it when you pout.” He sighs and looks away from her puffed up cheeks and slightly plumped lower lip. She knows that look gets to him and Thomas hates it.  
“Don’t even -”

“Do you know why people don’t like you, Thomas?”

“I’m sure your answer will be enlightening and eye-opening for me,” he mutters while leaning his elbows on the railing and looking down the four floors between them and the grassy park underneath where he sees a few kids out playing. “Do tell.”

“You’re rude. Self-centered and spoiled. You don’t think about anyone but yourself and -”

“That’s the same thing as self-centered.”

“Shut up and let me finish. You’re always so obnoxious and you treat everyone like they’re beneath you and act as if fanservice and gimmicks are going to get you far.” Thomas looks over when Rio pauses and lifts the cigarette to his lips again while he waits for the end.  
“You don’t know how to act like a decent human being half the time and no one should even be around you.”

“Well, if you -”

“But… you’re not IV anymore, are you?”

Thomas stops at that, jaw falling slack while he meets her gaze. She’s smiling at him, arms folded on the railing. “You stopped being IV when you came to that hospital. I like… Thomas. Even if you’re still kind of an ass.” Rio reaches over and takes his cigarette, wrinkling her nose and then putting it to her lips. He watches with an amused grin as she chokes on a puff.

“You don’t breathe it in, idiot,” he mutters while taking it back. “If you tell Ryoga he’ll kick my ass, you know. Say I’m a bad influence to you.”

“Well you are!”

Thomas shrugs and looks out over the railing to watch the sun as it inches toward the horizon. Funny how they’ve spent so much time together and still sometimes this all feels like some sort of tabloid scandal. Chris looks down his nose, saying that they’re better apart, and well… Ryoga’s feelings are obvious despite their tag duel together.  
No matter how much they had grown and changed there was no altering the past and what it meant. What it brought…

“I am,” he agrees quietly while he closes his eyes. “I really am… You should invest in better friends like Yuma and those others… friends of his. And Ryoga’s. Is he even friends with Yuma’s friends or does he just stick around?”

“Don’t be so mean. They are my friends… But you’re different I suppose.” Rio fiddles with the ring on her finger and shifts a bit. “Hey I got you something!” she says with an excited gasp and reaches for her bag.   
Thomas watches while she pulls a box out from her bag and excitedly opens it, removing two rings, much like the ones she and Ryoga wear.

“Where did -”

“We have a bond, Thomas, even if you don’t want to admit it. You’re a part of my life and you’ve changed who I am. Give me your hand.”

“A proposal so soon?” he teases, crushing the butt into the ashtray and turning to face her. She takes his right hand and slides the band onto his ring finger, nodding in satisfaction. “Now you do mine.”

“Rio this is stupid.”

“You’re acting like Ryoga just do it,” she snaps while giving him the band. He rolls his eyes and slips it onto the same finger on her right hand and in a bold move, lifts it to his lips to kiss. Rio stares at him in surprise, eyes wide with shock.

“Ah. Sorry. I didn’t -”

Thomas doesn’t get the chance to explain himself. Rio’s arms are around him with her lips against his own, one hand around his own and the other wound through his hair to pull him to her height. They part for a brief moment before Thomas closes the gap and kisses her back. That spark flares up inside Thomas’s chest and he back Rio up against the balcony door, to which she grips the handle to open it, letting them nearly tumble inside.  
Rio pulls Thomas’s collar down and she reaches for the hem of his t-shirt. It’s only then that Thomas takes her hands and pulls her away, pinning both wrists to the wall and his knee pressed between her thighs. She draws in a sharp breath and then bites down on her lower lip. “Thomas…”

Thomas lowers his gaze and releases one wrist to bring his fingers to the outside of her knee where he lets them glide slowly up her thigh to the edge of her shorts. “There’s something I want you to know about me. You’ll find out anyway.”

“You’re not… uh, sick or -”

“No! No it…” Thomas chuckles and kisses her again, catching her bottom lip between his teeth and giving it a small tug. “You’ll find out the hard way if I let you undress me.” Rio’s look of confusion only deepens as he rubs her hand up his back and over the old burns. Was that what she was thinking? That she was talking about his injuries sustained from the fire. If only that was his biggest concern….

"Whatever happens… I only ask you tell no one.”

Rio nods, her eyes falling shut as her fingers graze Thomas’s belt. “Whatever it is, I promise.”

—

“You need a coffee?”

“Mm. I prefer tea,” he replies, yawning and cracking one eye open. He runs his gaze down the length of her body, grinning as he leans in to kiss her collarbone. He slides a hand over her stomach to cup one breast, much more intrigued by the view rather than the idea of a hot drink. Rio gives a soft sigh and moves her hand down over his scarred back. “Come here.” He grips Rio around the waist and pulls her on top of him to straddle his hips, grinning while he holds her hips in place. “If you get my dick off the nightstand you can ride me.”

“Thomas that’s really crude.” Rio rolls her eyes and leans down to kiss him, giggling while she takes Thomas’s shirt and slides it on while hunting for her underwear. “Maybe tonight, I really have to get going or Ryoga will flip out. I’m going to grab a coffee and then go. Text you later?”

“And last night?  Last night we… don’t…?”

“Our secret. All of it.” Rio leans in to kiss him gently and smirks. “So does this mean we’re a thing, Thomas Arclight? You going to start calling me your girl?”

“No. Just my Rio,” he replies with a charming smile. She rolls her eyes at that and leaves for the kitchen while Thomas searches the nightstand for a cigarette.  
….He likes this. He likes what this has become.  
“Dinner tonight, unless more Barian shit happens, okay?”

“Okay!”

—

Thomas regrets those words. He really does. He thinks it’s the crest that allows him to stand in his kitchen with an empty bottle of wine, looking down at the ring on his finger - the only thing left of the girl who had brought something back into his life.  
Yuma… Kaito, and all their friends… No one remembered the Kamishiro’s. No records. No home. No trace of their existence except for that ring. Thomas clenches his first and brings it down on the table, shutting his eyes and shaking his head as if he could somehow dispel the agony sitting heavily inside his chest. What an awful existence… to remember her face and the warmth of her own… her own forgiveness! Somewhere between the tongue and cheek - between the sheets the morning coffee and the time spent at the hospital there was forgiveness.

He’d forgiven himself. And she…  
 _Had she forgiven him?_

What little energy left in him he uses to give his time to Chris while they continue to to look for answers. Sometimes he heads back to the hospital and sits in the garden where they’d had lunch and talked about dueling and how much Ryoga kept panting after Yuma.  
Nights welcome him with a bottle. It doesn’t matter what’s in it so long as it takes the pain away for a few hours. It’s not as if he’s never turned to the bottle before.  
After Tron… Ha…  
What a joke.

It’s a shock for his family when he tells them he’s going to go to school for art once they’re done with their dealings in the Astral and Barian worlds.  
  
“Maybe I’ll move away,” he says with a tight smile when Chris raises the question.

“You can’t run from this.”

“I know. There’s nothing to run from because no one even remembers.”

If only Chris knew just how deep it all hit him.

Thomas spends some nights thumbing through all his drawings, always stopping when he reaches the ones of Rio and brushing his fingers over the fine lines of her face, her hair, or the fabric of her clothes. She feels so real in his mind - fresh like gauze being ripped off a raw wound. He wonders if he’ll ever forget with time.

As if I ever could.

It’s the first time he pulls out a canvas in years.  
…And he starts to paint.

—

After seven years he hasn’t stopped smoking (he’s cut back significantly), though he’s dropped the cheap wine in favour of sips of brandy and aged rum over dinner. It’s funny to think how far things had come… How his life had been so tangled up in Barians and rivalries and, god, it was hard to think of himself as anyone other than the person he is now.  
All that aftermath lead to him going to school and getting a gallery job with a local place downtown. It was nice, considering all the struggle he’d gone through in his younger years.

Thomas yawns and glances at the clock. 2:37 AM. He shakes his head and leans back to observe his current work, itching for a cigarette but knowing he should go to bed soon.

“You staying up all night or are you coming to bed?”

“Sorry. I lost track of time.”

Thomas smiles at the hands that rest of his shoulders, gold ring catching his eye. He places a hand over her own and with the other he takes her by the waist and pulls her into his lap, lips catching her temple.   
“I was distracted with painting my lovely wife. I think you know her?” Thomas grins again and brushes hair out of her face, his forehead pressed to her own. “You look beautiful as ever, Rio.”

“You flatter me.”

“You’re extraterrestrial.”

Rio rolls her eyes and smacks his arm. “Thomas! Drop the Barian thing already, geeze.” She keeps their foreheads together, watching him for a moment. “Every day I’m glad I could come home. Ryoga and I belong here. Not in that world.” Rio’s fingers find his own and fit them in a neat weave. “So. Is this for your show?” she asks while glancing up at the canvas. “I like it so far.”

“I can promise that this city will never forget your face.” Thomas kisses her, tilting her chin down and placing a second kiss to her cheek. “I love you. I got you back and I don’t plan on letting you go now.” He stands, laughing when Rio gasps and wraps her arms around his necks while he hooks an arm under her legs.   
“To bed, then, my queen?”

“Why yes, my dear king,” she replies in a mock regal tone. “Carry me! Chop-chop!”

Thomas pushes the door open with his hip and steals one last glance at the near-finished work, a picture from their wedding, of her in her dress in the gardens where they’d done their photos. He smiles for a moment, but relents when she huffs for him to get back to bed because she’s cold.  
Things are good, now. He has a life again, and it’s with her. With the one totem in his life that should have been his undoing. And now she was here. With him. In the end… it’s all he wants. All he needs for now.

“ _Thomaaaas!_ ”

“Hold your horses, I’m going, I’m going.”

Things are good.  
Things are really,  _really_  good.


End file.
